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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
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Dynamical Components Analysis is a Python implementation of the method described in "Unsupervised discovery of temporal structure in noisy data with dynamical components analysis". It implements the method as well as related data analysis functions.
Dynamical Components Analysis is a Python implementation of the method described in "Unsupervised discovery of temporal structure in noisy data with dynamical components analysis". It implements the method as well as related data analysis functions.
Real-time steering of time-resolved or in-situ X-ray tomography requires capturing changes in morphological descriptors in a sample (e.g., porosity, particle size, and crack width) during continuous data acquisition. Image segmentation (2D or3D) followed by quantitative measurement is the conventional method for tracking changes in these descriptors with respect to a previous time-step or a 3D search in a volume. However, image segmentation is expensive. As a faster and unsupervised alternative, a feature-extraction approach using a convolutional autoencoders was developed, where the latent space of the encoder responds to relative changes in morphology with-out prior knowledge of the morphological descriptors.
It is an unsupervised representation algorithm used to learn morphometric properties from cellular objects. Many similar/identical open source implementations are widely available in tensorflow, pytorch, etc. And ours is implemented in matlab.
ENSIGN is a data analytics software package offering a modern unsupervised machine learning solution for scalable discovery in Big Data. The analytics in ENSIGN are based on an advanced mathematical tool called tensor decomposition and they are optimized to run efficiently on a range of computing platforms (from small multicore Desktop platforms to large Supercomputing clusters and novel high-end memory-driven computing platforms such as HPE Superdome Flex). ENSIGN enables the user to extract deep insights from the entirety of massive-scale (100s of Gigabytes or Terabytes scale) multidimensional data. ENSIGN uncovers latent patterns in data without the user having to specify or describe what the patterns are; the user, in the first place, may not even know such patterns existed and that they have to look for such patterns. The insights gained from ENSIGN could be trailheads that can be used as starting points for deeper forensic investigation.
The ROI-finder software is being developed for use by several Microscopy Group beamlines at Argonne National Laboratory, including 2-ID microprobes and 9-ID-B Bionanoprobe which use multi-scale scanning fluorescence microscopy to acquire elemental maps (multi-modal image data). Microscopy experiments require scan of samples at a coarse resolution followed by ROI identification using feature detection based on domain expertise. Finer resolution scans are then conducted based on identified ROI. The decision-making process based on domain expertise will be difficult to perform for faster data rates and much larger sampling volumes anticipated after APS-U necessitating the need for the ROI-finder software. The ROI- finder detects regions of interest through a continuous learning process, starting with a unsupervised representation learning and improving its recommendations through supervised learning and an interactive tool for user annotation. The scope of ongoing development efforts includes the integration of image registration module to correlate optical and X-ray images, extraction of feature morphology as well as elemental signatures in the image space and incorporation of beamtime streaming data by the scanning probe via EPICS.
The Locally Competitive Algorithm (LCA) is a dynamical sparse solver that uses only local computations, allowing for massively parallel implementations on compatible neuromorphic architectures such as Intel's Loihi research chip. In this invention, we show how unsupervised dictionary learning with spiking LCA can be implemented on GPUs and Intel's Loihi research chip.
A Physics-Informed Machine Learning (PIML) framework for better system vulnerability assessment and faster corrective action recommendation. This framework consists of deriving physics-informed priors and smart sampling algorithms to help reduce the data samples of grid models and the dimension of simulation outputs, yielding small yet representative subset of the complex system, and both supervised and unsupervised machine learning (ML) algorithms for designing corrective actions
DISSIDE uses novel unsupervised learning to select samples that best represent the strongest a priori discrete pattern in a given data set. It further removes major outliers and "noisy" samples that do not fit discrete patterns well or represent outliers in groups below a defined n value. It then estimates the fit and strength of the a priori discrete pattern using both unconstrained and constrained methods for raw and cleaned data
Source code to replicate the results of the paper: Benchmarking Unsupervised Online IDS for Masquerade Attacks in CAN (arXiv:2406.13778 [cs.CR])
Network intrusion detection systems (NIDS) are commonplace in network security but they frequently employ algorithms that are computational demanding requiring hardware and software with significant power requirements. Two examples of such resource-intensive algorithms used for network security are regular expression matching and broader signature pattern matching which are commonly used in deep packet inspection (DPI). Network security algorithms that have large power requirements may be a challenge for low-power internet-of-things (IoT) environments, which generally lack the power resources to implement complex security measures like computationally expensive DPI at the edge. Furthermore, IoT environments incorporating 5G standalone networks have network latency constraints beyond just power that make DPI at the edge even more difficult. Programmable logic is ideally suited for machine learning inference for DPI because of its deep instruction level parallelism and single-cycle memory access. Machine learning approaches for DPI have been explored before using the programmable logic of field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) as a potential solution for NIDS approaches that would be power-suitable for IoT. However, those previous programmable logic NIDS approaches utilize either a supervised or unsupervised learning model. Sentinel utilizes the ensemble of these two machine learning approaches known as a semi-supervised approach which has shown promise in NIDS implementations. Sentinel provides a programmable logic implementation of a semi-supervised approach for DPI which operates at much lower power and latency than a GPU implementation with negligible loss of accuracy due to quantization through a logistic regressor.
The HSA is a statistics based anomaly detection model. The model performs unsupervised anomaly detection, based on a datapoint's density and similarity within a dataset. Density and similarity data are encoded into an affinity matrix. The affinity matrix is evolved to summarize the data's structure on greater topographical scales within the data's function space. The set of evolved affinity matrices and an anomaly score vector are passed to a user defined penalized objective function. The penalized objective function of anomaly scores is then minimized. Data points where the absolute value of the z-scores of anomaly scores greater than a specified threshold are predicted as anomalies. A novel multi-filter feature has also been implemented. To reduce false positive rates, the multi-filter records the indexes of the HSA predictions. A new dataset and data loader are instantiated consisting of all the initial HSA predictions and non-anomalous data points in a 10% and 90% split respectively. The HSA is then run through this data set and a count of number of times a data point is predicted is kept. In this way the initial predictions may be compared with data spanning the entire dataset. After the multi-filter is complete, all datapoints will have an associated anomaly score, as well as a multi-filter prediction count to further filter the anomalous predictions.
SF-25-088 Coherent X-ray scattering techniques are critical for investigating the fundamental structural properties of materials at the nanoscale. While advancements have made these experiments more accessible, real-time analysis remains a significant bottleneck, often hindered by artifacts and computational demands. In scanning X-ray nanodiffraction microscopy, which is widely used to spatially resolve structural heterogeneities, this challenge is compounded by the convolution of the divergent beam with the sample’s local structure. To address this, we introduce DONUT (Diffraction with Optics for Nanobeam by Unsupervised Training), a physics-aware neural network designed for the rapid and automated analysis of nanobeam diffraction data. By incorporating a differentiable geometric diffraction model directly into its architecture, DONUT learns to predict crystal lattice strain and orientation in real-time. Crucially, this is achieved without reliance on labeled datasets or pre-training, overcoming a fundamental limitation for supervised machine learning in X-ray science. We demonstrate experimentally that DONUT accurately extracts all features within the data over 200 times more efficiently than conventional fitting methods.
Abstract Droplet-level interactions in clouds are often parameterized by a modified gamma fitted to a “global” droplet size distribution. Do “local” droplet size distributions of relevance to microphysical processes look like these average distributions? This paper describes an algorithm to search and classify characteristic size distributions within a cloud. The approach combines hypothesis testing, specifically, the Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) test, and a widely used class of machine learning algorithms for identifying clusters of samples with similar properties: density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) is used as the specific example for illustration. The two-sample KS test does not presume any specific distribution, is parameter free, and avoids biases from binning. Importantly, the number of clusters is not an input parameter of the DBSCAN-type algorithms but is independently determined in an unsupervised fashion. As implemented, it works on an abstract space from the KS test results, and hence spatial correlation is not required for a cluster. The method is explored using data obtained from the Holographic Detector for Clouds (HOLODEC) deployed during the Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in the Eastern North Atlantic (ACE-ENA) field campaign. The algorithm identifies evidence of the existence of clusters of nearly identical local size distributions. It is found that cloud segments have as few as one and as many as seven characteristic size distributions. To validate the algorithm’s robustness, it is tested on a synthetic dataset and successfully identifies the predefined distributions at plausible noise levels. The algorithm is general and is expected to be useful in other applications, such as remote sensing of cloud and rain properties. Significance Statement A typical cloud can have billions of drops spread over tens or hundreds of kilometers in space. Keeping track of the sizes, positions, and interactions of all of these droplets is impractical, and, as such, information about the relative abundance of large and small drops is typically quantified with a “size distribution.” Droplets in a cloud interact locally, however, so this work is motivated by the question of whether the cloud droplet size distribution is different in different parts of a cloud. A new method, based on hypothesis testing and machine learning, determines how many different size distributions are contained in a given cloud. This is important because the size distribution describes processes such as cloud droplet growth and light transmission through clouds.
Abstract This study focuses on assessing the representation and predictability of North American weather regimes, which are persistent large-scale atmospheric patterns, in a set of initialized subseasonal reforecasts created using the Community Earth System Model, version 2 (CESM2). The k -means clustering was used to extract four key North American (10°–70°N, 150°–40°W) weather regimes within ERA5 reanalysis, which were used to interpret CESM2 subseasonal forecast performance. Results show that CESM2 can recreate the climatology of the four main North American weather regimes with skill but exhibits biases during later lead times with overoccurrence of the West Coast high regime and underoccurrence of the Greenland high and Alaskan ridge regimes. Overall, the West Coast high and Pacific trough regimes exhibited higher predictability within CESM2, partly related to El Niño. Despite biases, several reforecasts were skillful and exhibited high predictability during later lead times, which could be partly attributed to skillful representation of the atmosphere from the tropics to extratropics upstream of North America. The high predictability at the subseasonal time scale of these case-study examples was manifested as an “ensemble realignment,” in which most ensemble members agreed on a prediction despite ensemble trajectory dispersion during earlier lead times. Weather regimes were also shown to project distinct temperature and precipitation anomalies across North America that largely agree with observational products. This study further demonstrates that unsupervised learning methods can be used to uncover sources and limits of subseasonal predictability, along with systematic biases present in numerical prediction systems. Significance Statement North American weather regimes are large-scale atmospheric patterns that can persist for several days. Their skillful subseasonal (2 weeks or greater) prediction can provide valuable lead time to prepare for temperature and precipitation anomalies that can stress energy and water resources. The purpose of this study was to assess the climatological representation and subseasonal predictability of four key North American weather regimes using a research subseasonal prediction system and clustering analysis. We found that the Pacific trough and West Coast high regimes exhibited higher predictability than other regimes and that skillful representation of conditions across the tropics and extratropics can increase predictability during later lead times. Future work will quantify causal pathways associated with high predictability.
Abstract We investigate the large-scale weather patterns during extreme precipitation (PEx) events over the conterminous United States (CONUS) by applying a version of the quasigeostrophic (QG) omega equation. This work aims to develop a climatology of the weather patterns most related to PEx events during current climate. Extreme events are examined for each of seven regions defined by consistent annual cycles of precipitation and spanning the CONUS. For the CONUS we train several self-organizing maps (SOM) on a pressure–time series of vertical velocity from each of the advective forcing terms in the QG omega equation for each extreme event. The unsupervised learning of the SOM allows us to identify the most descriptive set of nine patterns in vertical velocity associated with precipitation extremes. This method finds multiple frontal- and cyclone-driven patterns while grouping primarily convective events into one pattern. Frontal events include a synoptic pattern consistent with West Coast atmospheric river events as well as pattern groups linked to developing and to mature (“occluded”) frontal cyclones. The primary patterns found during PEx events vary seasonally and geographically. Frontal cyclone patterns are most common during PEx events during summer in the part of the Great Plains and during winter for the Northeast, Southeast, Pacific Northwest, and Southwest. Convection is the most common pattern during summer in all regions. Except in the Southeast, the annual cycles of monthly number of PEx events and average precipitation match well, partially validating our choice of regions to aggregate PEx events.
Efficient dynamic ride-matching (DRM) in large-scale transportation systems is a key driver in transport simulations to yield answers to challenging problems. Although the DRM problem is simple to solve, it quickly becomes a computationally challenging problem in large-scale transportation system simulations. Therefore, this study thoroughly examines the DRM problem dynamics and proposes an optimization-based solution framework to solve the problem efficiently. To benefit from parallel computing and reduce computational times, the problem’s network is divided into clusters utilizing a commonly used unsupervised machine learning algorithm along with a linear programming model. Then, these sub-problems are solved using another linear program to finalize the ride-matching. At the clustering level, the framework allows users adjusting cluster sizes to balance the trade-off between the computational time savings and the solution quality deviation. A case study in the Chicago Metropolitan Area, U.S., illustrates that the framework can reduce the average computational time by 58% at the cost of increasing the average pick up time by 26% compared with a system optimum, that is, non-clustered, approach. Another case study in a relatively small city, Bloomington, Illinois, U.S., shows that the framework provides quite similar results to the system-optimum approach in approximately 62% less computational time.